2024 Wrap-up--83 Life Birds

Pomarine Jaeger, Barnegat Light SP

Four countries, 432 species, 83 life birds. So, the numbers look good, if you want to count up the check marks. But. When we were in Spain this year and I listed bird #1500 (I believe it was a Cinerous Vulture, but I can't be sure, which is part of the point I'm about to make), I said to our guide Pedro that I now had enough birds on my life list. We still had three more days to go on the trip, but I was ready to go home and walk around the bogs to see what I could find. He seemed perplexed. "But now you can aim for 2000," he said, and the prospect of that made me tired. There are 10,000+ species of birds. Does it matter if I have listed 15% of them or 20% of them? There are 350,000 to 400,000 species of beetles. My brother is an expert on beetles, but he sure doesn't think he's going find more than a tiny per cent of the described species. I know a birder who did a big world-wide year in 2024--more than 2000 species in one year, more than I've seen in the all the years I've been birding. It's an amazing achievement but not one that I envy. Looking back on my year list, already a lot of the birds I listed are vague in my mind--birds from Australia and South Africa even dimmer. I wonder how many of the 2000 birds on that list are really spectacular and "worth the trip" while the others are "padding." 

Mangrove Vireo, Puerto Morelos

As it happens, my two favorite lifers this year were the first and the last birds on the list. The first was a Mangrove Vireo which I found while walking along a--wait for it--mangrove in Puerto Morelos, Mexico, near where my friends live. No guide, no specific search, just attentiveness to a song I didn't recognize and after a little work, I finally found the bird and, once I knew the song, I could take Shari back the next morning and find it again. That, to me, was an accomplishment. Interestingly, while reading up on Mangrove Vireo, I found that it is not often found in mangroves! Just as the Prairie Warbler, which is not found on prairies, is misnamed, so is this bird to a certain extent. 

The last life bird for the year was the Pomarine Jaeger at Barnegat Light this month. It was a 45 minute drive away, which for me is a bit more traveling than I like to do of late, but it was a county bird, a state bird, and a bird that is usually seen far off-shore, so unlikely to be added to a landlubber's list--and I didn't have to eat mediocre food for 10 days to see it.

I tend to get negative anyway in December--it's not a great month to find much and certainly hard to find anything new and sometimes that attitude can bite you as it did this week. I was walking around Reeves Bogs on Sunday, finding what I'd expect to find and still had some time on my hands. I thought maybe I'd drive over to the Burlington County Fairgrounds to look for the Rough-legged Hawk, a bird that seems to return to the grasslands there every year, but then I said to myself, "Nah, I already have Rough-legged for the year, what's the point?" Instead, I headed home. Two hours later I got an alert that there was a Crested Caracara there and I burst out of the house to make the 40 minute drive there, but of course, the bird had flown 10 minutes before I got there. Had I felt that morning that searching for a Rough-legged might be fun, I'd have seen the caracara, year bird and county bird. But I didn't. I considered going to the Fairgrounds early on Monday, but thought it was low percentage, so instead I went to Whitesbog where I was when (of course) I got the alert that the caracara was back--30 minutes later I arrived, only to hear that the bird had flow off after 15 minutes. There had also been a Northern Shrike reported there but I already have Northern Shrike for the year and for the county, so I didn't care. It was still there today. The calendar flips tomorrow. I'm going to Sandy Hook to "Kick Off the Year List". On Thursday, I'll care about the shrike. New birds! Year birds! I'm playing a game I can't win. 

The life birds for the year more or less in order listed:

Species                 Location
Mangrove Vireo   Puerto Morelos (Mexico)
Pallid Swift   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Green Sandpiper   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Great Spotted Woodpecker   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Eurasian Jay   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Iberian Magpie   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Eurasian Blue Tit   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Willow Warbler   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Sardinian Warbler   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Eurasian Nuthatch   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Spotless Starling   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Eurasian Blackbird   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Spotted Flycatcher   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
European Pied Flycatcher   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
European Stonechat   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Northern Wheatear   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Yellow-crowned Bishop   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
White Wagtail   Quinta da Atalaya (Portugal)
Common Redshank   RN Estuario do Tejo (Portugal)
Short-toed Treecreeper   RN Estuario do Tejo (Portugal)
Eurasian Oystercatcher   RN Sapal Castro Marim e VRSA (Portugal)
Kentish Plover   RN Sapal Castro Marim e VRSA (Portugal)
Spotted Redshank   RN Sapal Castro Marim e VRSA (Portugal)
Slender-billed Gull   RN Sapal Castro Marim e VRSA (Portugal)
Audouin's Gull   RN Sapal Castro Marim e VRSA (Portugal)
Iberian Gray Shrike   A-49, Ayamonte ES-Huelva (Spain)
Tawny Owl   Villamanrique de la Condesa (Spain)
Black Stork   Chg-Bg-03,Sevilla (Spain)
Booted Eagle   Chg-Bg-03,Sevilla (Spain)
Black-headed Weaver   Carretera Sur del Colector (Spain)
Marbled Duck   Camino Muro de los Portugueses (Spain)
Common Snipe   Camino Muro de los Portugueses (Spain)
Little Ringed Plover   Camino Muro de los Portugueses (Spain)
Western Swamphen   Brazo del Este PjeNat (Spain)
Short-toed Snake-Eagle   Carretera Sur del Colector (Spain)
European Robin   Villamanrique de la Condesa (Spain)
Eurasian Curlew   Marismas del Odiel (Spain)
Eurasian Wryneck   Marismas del Odiel PNat (Spain)
Long-tailed Tit   Donana PN (Spain)
Wood Lark   Donana PN (Spain)
Eurasian Wren   Donana PN (Spain)
Red Kite   Muro de la Confederacian Hidrografica del Guadalquivir (Spain)
Whinchat   Muro de la Confederacian Hidrografica del Guadalquivir (Spain)
Eurasian Griffon   Donana PN (Spain)
Mediterranean Short-toed Lark   Donana PN (Spain)
Common Redstart   Donana PN (Spain)
Gray Wagtail   Donana PN (Spain)
Eurasian Linnet   Donana PN (Spain)
Corn Bunting   Donana PN (Spain)
Common Kingfisher   Lagunas de Martin Miguel (Spain)
White-headed Duck   Lagunas de Camino Colorado (Spain)
Temminck's Stint   Lagunas de Camino Colorado (Spain)
Northern Bald Ibis   11150, Vejer de la Frontera (Spain)
Eurasian Sparrowhawk   11150, Vejer de la Frontera (Spain)
Balearic Shearwater   El Estrecho PNat (Spain)
Spanish Sparrow   El Estrecho PNat (Spain)
Blue Rock-Thrush   Observatorio de Cazalla (Spain)
Egyptian Vulture   Los Alcornocales PNat (Spain)
European Shag   El Estrecho PNat (Spain)
Red-legged Partridge   Embalse de Alange (Spain)
Thekla's Lark   Embalse de Alange (Spain)
Eurasian Crag-Martin   Embalse de Alange (Spain)
European Red-rumped Swallow   Embalse de Alange (Spain)
Meadow Pipit   Embalse de Arrocampo (Spain)
Cinereous Vulture   Monfrague PN (Spain)
Crested Tit   Monfrague PN (Spain)
Great Bustard   Roadside 39.45384-6.19309 (Spain)
Spanish Eagle   Roadside 39.45384-6.19309 (Spain)
Little Owl   Roadside 39.45384-6.19309 (Spain)
Calandra Lark   Roadside 39.45384-6.19309 (Spain)
Black-bellied Sandgrouse   Roadside 39.46188-6.18491 (Spain)
Pin-tailed Sandgrouse   Magasca ZEPA (Spain)
Hawfinch   Monfrague PN (Spain)
Stock Dove   Embalse de Arrocampo (Spain)
Water Rail   Embalse de Arrocampo (Spain)
Eurasian Penduline-Tit   Embalse de Arrocampo (Spain)
Bluethroat   Embalse de Arrocampo (Spain)
Common Chiffchaff   Embalse de Arrocampo (Spain)
Eurasian Thick-knee   Embalse de Arrocampo (Spain)
Bonelli's Eagle   Lezaria Grande de Vila Franca de Xira (Portugal)
Blue-crowned Parakeet   Parque Eduardo VII (Portugal)
Pomarine Jaeger   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Barnegat Lighthouse SP 12/4--POMARINE JAEGER

 
We've reached the stage in Shari's recovery where I feel it's safe to leave her for more than a couple of hours, so this morning, early, I drove up to Barnegat Lighthouse SP with the hope that the immature POMARINE JAEGER was still hanging out on the beach after almost a week. As late as 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon it was sighted, but even with that, my hopes were not high. 

I had little interest in any of the common birds I saw on my trek down to the ocean (a new sign informed me that it was 0.7 miles), so I merely glanced at the birds along the way. Down on the beach I could see there was a large flock of gulls, and I was hoping the jaeger would be in among them. I was careful not to get too close--I was just at the edge of scoping range when I took the scope off my shoulder, but it didn't matter, the whole flock up and flew off, leaving the beach with just a few examples of garden-variety gullage. I wasn't really inclined to just stand there and hope my target would fly in, but I saw a friend of mine coming down along the jetty, so I waited for him. He had seen me set up the scope, so he thought I had the bird, so he was disappointed too. 

We passed the time looking at ducks in the ocean and we were just about to walk back through dunes above the pond, thinking the jaeger might have settled down in there, when another birder I know arrived. Since we hadn't seen the bird, he decided to walk up the beach a bit, but he didn't get more than 50 feet before he said, "There's the bird." 

I was looking for a bird flying in, but the jaeger was hunkered down in the sand among some beach grass, just slightly behind us to our right and maybe 75 feet away from where we had been standing for half an hour. I felt like such a dope, the only consolation being that had we started to walk back we surely would have stumbled upon the bird. 

Because I don't go on pelagics, Pomarine Jaeger was one of those birds I never expected to add to my life list. To find one stationery on the ground, giving perfect views, was more than I could have wished for. Aside from breeding on the arctic tundra, these birds are supposed to spend all their time at sea, not loafing on a beach. Since the bird can fly, it doesn't appear that there is an injury or illness keeping it ashore.  This one is an immature bird according to coloration, but I don't imagine that it's too inexperienced to know it shouldn't be at Barnegat Lighthouse. 

We saw two more birders coming down the beach from the north and my friend was frantically waving at them to hurry up. The bird had stood by this time and raised its wings, giving us a looking at the white flashing beneath, a good field mark, but that also meant it might be restless. Just as they walked up, sure enough, the bird flew. They got an okay look at it in flight, but I wouldn't have been satisfied with it. They were getting ready to hunker down and wait for the bird to fly back in but their wait wasn't long because not 5 minutes passed before it came back in over the inlet and settled down about 25 feet from where we'd originally seen it. Life bird all around.

As I mentioned, I wasn't paying too much attention to the other birds, focused as I was on a lifer (another negative by-product of chasing), but on the way back, along the pool, we looked a little closer at what was about. 30 species for the 2 hours I was there. 

Brant  150
Canada Goose  10
Gadwall  1     Pool
Mallard  20
American Black Duck  1
Common Eider  3
Harlequin Duck  2
Long-tailed Duck  1
Bufflehead  1
Killdeer  1     Pool
Greater Yellowlegs  1     Pool
Sanderling  1
Dunlin  100
POMARINE JAEGER  1   
Laughing Gull  1
Ring-billed Gull  20
American Herring Gull  40
Great Black-backed Gull  15
Horned Grebe  1
Red-throated Loon  1
Common Loon  1
Snowy Egret  2     Exact count. Pool
American Crow  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
Carolina Wren  1
House Sparrow  1
Snow Bunting  20
Savannah Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  3
Yellow-rumped Warbler  10